In the morning I went, but not so soon as I had appointed; upon which,
when I came, he seemed offended, and said I had hindered him--that he
could have sold the whole parcel, &c. I told him I could not have
hindered him, for that I had told him he should not wait for me, but
sell them to the first good customer he found. He told me he had indeed
sold two or three casks, but he would not disoblige me so much as to
sell the whole parcel before I came. This I mention, because he made it
a kind of a bite upon me, that I should not be alarmed at seeing the
casks displaced in the cellar.

When I came to taste the brandy, I began to be surprised. I saw the very
same casks which I had touched with the marking-iron when I was there
before, but I did not like the brandy by any means, but did not yet
suspect the least foul play.

I went round the whole cellar, and I could not mark above three casks
which I durst venture to buy; the rest apparently showed themselves to
be mixed, at least I thought so. I marked out the three casks, and told
him my palate had deceived me, that the rest of the brandy was not for
my turn.

I saw the man surprised, and turn pale, and at first seemed to be very
angry, that I should, as he called it, disparage the goods--that sure I
did not understand brandy, and the like--and that I should have brought
somebody with me that did understand it. I answered coldly, that if I
ventured my money upon my own judgment, the hazard was not to the
seller, but to the buyer, and nobody had to do with that; if I did not
like his goods, another, whose judgment was better, might like them, and
so there was no harm done: in a word, he would not let me have the three